A spokesman for the newspaper accused the train operator of only selling pro-Remain titles the Mirror, Financial Times and the Times, in line with owner Sir Richard Branson’s views.

The Mail spokesman added: “It is disgraceful that, at a time of massive customer dissatisfaction over ever-increasing rail fares, and after the taxpayer was forced to bail out Virgin’s East Coast mainline franchise, a decision strongly criticised by the Mail, that Virgin Trains should now announce that for political reasons it is censoring the choice of newspapers it offers to passengers.”

A spokesman for Virgin Trains said: “We regularly review the products we have on sale for customers in the shop on board our west coast trains and after listening to feedback from our people, we decided in November 2017 that we would no longer stock copies of the Daily Mail.

“When we stocked the Daily Mail on board, we sold one copy for every four trains.”

The Society of Editors has said it is concerned about the move, which “smacks of censorship”.